


The Gambler

by TheShortestManOnEarth



Series: Glimmadora Week 3.0 2020 [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Family, Fanart, Fluff, Glimmadora Week 3.0 2020, Lifelong partners, Lyrics based story, Modern AU, day 3 prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:09:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28305843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShortestManOnEarth/pseuds/TheShortestManOnEarth
Summary: Glimmadora Week 3 Day 3: Lyrics/Letters-Lyrics. Story based on Fun's song "The Gambler".Adora and Glimmer have spent their entire lives together. Even in the hardest moments, there isn't a single fight they aren't willing to brave to prove their love to each other.Fanart and Fanart Link included!
Relationships: Adora & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: Glimmadora Week 3.0 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2040798
Kudos: 6





	The Gambler

**Author's Note:**

> Hi All,
> 
> Glimmadora Week 3 Day 3: Lyrics/Letters-Lyrics!
> 
> Sorry this took so long. I ended up redoing the original sketch for this a bunch of times before I even started the color for the artwork. But, at long last both this story and the art are finished. 
> 
> I've had this idea for a while (hence why I was being extra perfectionist about it). It seemed perfect for Glimmer and Adora's relationship (even though I did it as a modern AU-I think it would have worked in the original universe too). I have a special place for Fun's "The Gambler" because it was played at my wedding party and my spouse and I danced to it (my spouse introduced me to it). So I hope this also gives you all the good feelings. Force knows we all need it right now. 
> 
> I'm in the middle of working on the next chapter of Albatross (I'm hoping to get that up over the weekend at the latest). "Burning Ground" and "Last Night on Earth" should also be updated soon too. 
> 
> Direct Link to the Artwork on my Instagram: [Here](https://www.instagram.com/p/CJNLoMzpQCI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)  
> 
> 
> As Always, I appreciate your comments and feedback. Let me know what you think! Happy Holidays!

One thing that never changed, no matter how many years passed, was that Adora never slowed down. She was a driven person. Even with her hair thinning at the ends and her blonde locks fading to grey, she moved through their garden with practiced ease. She was so focused on her task that she almost didn’t notice her wife standing in the doorway of their home. 

“Slow down, Adora. We’ve got time left to be lazy.” Glimmer took the garden in a few strides, then claimed the lips that were hers to keep. “But I don’t care to beg your pardon.” The warm Summer day never did compare the burning passion the two brought when they collided. 

\--- 

Adora was never a risktaker. Her actions were planned to the last letter, the last note, and every step she took was premeditated. Just as the sun rose every day and set at the end of the day, Adora would follow the same rhythm daily. 

There was a comfort in knowing how the day would turn out. It was cool, calming, and in her heart of hearts, Adora needed calm. She paused in her task of entering the latest book returns at the circulation desk of the high school library to glance up at the shuffling of clothes. 

“Hey, is this where I return my books?” Adora’s eyes met two lilac ones. The girl standing there was the perfect mix of bright colors and muted darks from her black t-shirt with a purple jaguar jumping over a moon. She had on black jeans and a vest with every conceivable button, pin, and patch possible to own. If the library was quiet in its expressiveness, then this girl was loud in the most electrifying ways possible. 

“Yeah, you can just put them in the slot under the desk. I’ll take care of it.” Adora said with a smile. The other girl returned the smile. 

“Awesome.” The girl slipped the books and to Adora’s surprise, she didn’t immediately leave. The blonde couldn’t help but once more shift her gaze from the brightly colored hair to the pure energy that seemed to radiate from this girl. 

“Did you need help finding something?” Adora asked. The girl smiled, tilting her head slightly. Without another their eyes met and immediately Adora felt the normal calm waves that flowed through her mind to crash into each other. They were quickly giving way to a warmth that burned its way to the way that the other girl looked almost through Adora. But the other stopped long enough to connect with the nervous blonde’s confused expression. 

“I think so. I was looking for a date to the dance.” The blonde’s face flushed red. “And I think I may have found her.” 

“Uh….” Adora’s mind refused to process anything outside of work. The other girl set another book down. Adora wordlessly scanned it. “This is due back on the 12th…” The pink haired girl smiled. 

“Glimmer.” The pink haired girl leaned against the counter. 

“Right, Glimmer.” Adora slipped the library card in. Her mind was still running in frantic circles. She couldn’t have planned this if she tried. As she looked Glimmer over there was a semblance of recollection simmering in her mind. The pink haired girl was in most of Adora’s classes. She was in the back so that the blonde, who usually sat in the front, barely noticed her. Now Glimmer was the only thing Adora wanted to look at. 

“Tell you what, you can give me my answer when I return this.” Glimmer said. She placed the book into her messenger bag. “You should live until you die, Adora. Think about it?” 

The blonde nodded, her body now slowing to take in the sweet pink haired girl who was quite possibly the most interesting book that Adora had yet to read. 

A week went by and Glimmer came by to return her book. Adora wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she had been anticipating the pink haired girl’s return for days now. When the book landed on the desk, Adora’s heart almost gave out. She met the pair of lilac eyes. 

It was late in the evening, close to closing, and the two girls were the last ones in the library. Normally Adora would have tried to close out as soon as possible, but she wondered where this was going. What she expected was for Glimmer to ask for a direct answer. Instead, the pink haired girl pulled out her phone, turning on some music and then stuck out her hand. 

“Dance with me?” 

“What?” Adora felt a cold nervousness fill her. But Glimmer still stood, hand extended, and a contagious crackle of a blazing smile that sent a shiver of excitement through the blonde. It made no sense, but it was as if she were seeing the pink haired girl for the first and the second time. All the sensations were kindled and gently coaxed to the hearth that Glimmer seemed to provide. No one would believe it, but Adora knew this was love at second sight. 

She took the hand and Glimmer spun her partner around and neither paid any mind to the chills of the cold library or how empty the library was. It was hard to be wanting when they filled each other with curiosity. 

“I swear when I grow up.” Glimmer said. “I won’t just buy you a rose. I’ll buy the whole flower shop. You’ll never be lonely.” 

In the following years Glimmer never once broke her promise to the blonde. She stayed by Adora’s side. Even when their youngest, Blaze, was ill they never once questioned the fire that burned between them. 

The family moved from Bright Moon to Plumeria where a known doctor returned the life that had begun to wilt in Blaze’s eyes. Every night Adora would sit by their bed and plant seeds in the garden outside, hoping, that somehow the wings that carried Blaze thus far could lift them out of this dark time. 

Adora found herself outside in the afternoons, wondering if this is how the flames would go out. Glimmer followed. 

“You remember when you took my hand?” Glimmer asked. 

Adora smiled. “Every day.” 

“I wasn’t sure if you would, but I learned that day I had to keep coming back to you. I had to return to you, to finish our story. We’re not done. Blaze isn’t done.” A hand extended again and neither needed the words to accompany the melody that played on their heartstrings. There was no system, no numbers, and no organization to it. Adora wouldn’t have it any other way. 

That night Adora repeated her wife’s powerful words like a blessing to her sleeping child. “Stay with me, stay with me.” The fire flickered once more and stretched towards the sky. Blaze’s eyes lived again in the coming weeks. 

There was a familiarity even when they saw Blaze rise a as a storyteller in training to a full member of Mystacor’s highest writing honor. Pride couldn’t even begin to describe how Adora felt. So many promises, hopes, and wishes fell into place on the day Blaze received their letter of acceptance. 

Adora recalled the days when she’d stay up for “One more chapter, Mama!” until the sun came up. When Glimmer would come to wake her youngest, she’d often find them both fast asleep in Blaze’s bedroom. 

Glimmer could see the fast-moving child in the blur of Blaze’s wings and in the glow of their magic as they spun tales. Everything they wanted was what Glimmer wanted: a connection to all. They genuinely believed everyone would someday be friends. Time slowed once more for the two lifelong friends and wives to enjoy watching their children grow. 

Skylar had the clearest blue eyes like Adora’s. There were days when Glimmer swore that she saw the world turning in those blue orbs. Adora cried when their daughter was born, swearing over and over that she’d never let them learn or live alone. The fire still lived on in the home they shared with each other’s hearts. Skylar’s love was for leading like her mother and bringing everyone in for a chance at the dances of life. It was a cozy shift for the two mothers to let their children bloom on their own. 

\--- 

“You think that I nearly lost you.” Glimmer said softly, pulling her wife close as they swayed, dancing in the garden, the task forgotten. 

Thirty years ago, Adora had been in the garden, tending to the plants when she’d collapsed. The pot she’d been holding shattered and the sound brought Glimmer out, running and calling out her name. For the sound never left their ears. 

As Adora lay in the hospital, Glimmer stayed at the side of the bed. She never once got up, never faltered in holding on and reaching out like she had the first time they’d met. Or the first time they really saw one another. When the blonde ebbed in and out, her grip on the seeds of their life falling away, Glimmer was there to light it once more and bring that beating hearth back to life as she had so many times before. 

When the doctor delivered the news that he didn’t think that Adora would make it through to the next sunrise, Glimmer gripped her wife’s hand and stared hard into those blue eyes that had never failed to bring a sense of balance to the pink haired woman’s burning fire. 

Each night was harder than the last. The cold crept into Adora’s hands once more. Glimmer could feel her wife slipping away. Every other day Blaze would come visit, bringing flowers and the light would return to Adora’s eyes, even for second, it was just enough for Glimmer to hope. Few things existed that could extinguish the faith Glimmer had in reserve for all. It was the same rise of sparks to the air that gave Adora the courage she needed to take her wife’s hand so many years ago. That light was fading with each day in the stale cool hospital room where even Glimmer’s usual vibrantly colored outfits had faded to gray. 

On the third night the doctor brought the test results that nearly wrenched the life out of the two women. But Glimmer held fast and fixed her wife with the last embers of the fire inside of those lilac eyes Adora had been lost in for so long. If Glimmer could help it, so she would, a declaration fit for a Queen rose to her lips as she tried to impart all the stubbornness in love that she felt for Adora into words. 

“You swore you’d be here till it’s our time.” Glimmer said quietly. “Well, it’s not time. You’ve never quit in all your life. So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side.” Adora’s other hand covered her wife’s. “You’re the love of my life and you know that I will never leave your side.” 

They’d both grown familiar with one another, knowing that even when Adora rushed on ahead, she knew where she was going. There wasn’t a single day that went by where Adora regretted the moment she threw away her roadmap and accepted Glimmer’s hand. She hadn’t known what to expect or how to love, but it was less of a taught lesson and more of a mutually kept question that continued to be answered. Through the minutes where Glimmer refused to let go of her wife’s hand as she braved each night, wondering if it would be her last. 

But Adora had always been made of sterner stuff and as the blonde let out a disgruntled groan as their dog Swift Wind barked and tried to shake Glimmer down for more scraps, the pink haired woman couldn’t see the dark hospital any longer. Here was their home. Both brought wood, the passion for each other that breathed air into the flames and sent it soaring. 

Adora set flowers on the table while aiming for Glimmer’s cheek with a kiss but missing and kissing her eye. The two laughed, lifted by their children at their side, and the hearth that kept them warm through the years. 

After dinner they moved outside and Adora held out her hand. They moved together once more, like they hadn’t before, the blonde taking the lead. “Dance with me,” synchronized with “Stay with me.” It was simply another way to say their lives had grown together. Now neither knew how to step without the other to guide them. Adora had long since lost herself the day Glimmer had brought the book back. Each time they danced brought something back and felt like the first time. 

“Just take my hand. Know that I’ll never leave your side,” Adora whispered as the sun lowered itself over the fields beyond their garden. The chilly air prompted them to return inside where Glimmer made a fire in the fireplace before the two settled on the couch to watch the sunset. No matter how it burned or one day turned to ash, Adora would stay until their time came.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the art piece I did:  
>   
> 


End file.
